Russia seeks nuclear role in China

Russia said it wants to play a greater role in helping China develop its nuclear power industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Beijing welcomed Russia’s involvement as it attempts one of the biggest nuclear rollouts in the industry’s history. China said it plans to build at least 30 reactors over the next 15 years, adding to the nine it already has at two plants. The comments came as President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wrapped up their two-day summit in Beijing, which focused on much closer co-operation over energy. Russian officials said Russia’s atomic-energy agency subsidiary AtomStroyExport was involved in the first round of bidding to build four Chinese reactors valued at between US$1 billion and US$2 billion. The other two companies short-listed are Westinghouse Electric and France’s state-owned Areva.